Who is Kaja Kallas, the Estonian prime minister who was included by Putin on his black list

On Tuesday, Russia surprised to announce that he had issued a search and arrest warrant against the Prime Minister of EstoniaKaja Kallas, without specifying what crime or offense she is accused of.

But Russian news agency TASS reported, based on security sources, that the reason for the order is destruction or damage caused to monuments of Soviet soldiers in Estonia.

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While the digital newspaper Intermediate zonewho had access to the database, communicated the arrest warrant to the Kallas46 years, is due to the withdrawal of the Soviet T-34 tank from the city of Narvain the border Russiaalong with other monuments, something that happened in August 2022.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas arrives at an extraordinary European Council in Brussels, Belgium, on February 1, 2024. (EFE/EPA/Olivier Matthys).

The EFE agency, based on Intermediate zonesaid that at the end of 2022, the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexandr Bastrikin, ordered the opening of an investigation into what happened in Narva.

In addition to Kallas, The Russian Interior Ministry issued search and arrest warrants against other senior officials and deputies from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

One of them is the Estonian State Secretary, Taimar Peterkop. Also included is the Lithuanian Minister of Culture, Simonas Kairys.

Mediazona detailed that the list includes 59 of the 68 deputies of the Latvian Parliament for voting in favor of the denunciation of the treaty with Russia for the conservation of monuments.

Another 15 municipal deputies from Riga, the capital of Latvia, were included on the list, as well as former ministers of the Interior, Finance, Justice and Agriculture. All due to the dismantling of a Soviet monument.

Since the beginning of the war between Russia It is Ukraine Two years ago, numerous monuments to Red Army soldiers were also demolished in Poland and the Czech Republic, AP reported.

Russia has laws that criminalize the “rehabilitation of Nazis”, with clauses that punish the desecration of war monumentsAP said.

He Russian Investigative Committeemain criminal investigation agency in the country, has a department that deals with alleged “falsification of history” and the “rehabilitation of Nazism”which has intensified its action since the start of the war, according to Mediazona.

“For crimes against the memory of those who freed the world from Nazism and fascism, we must answer! “This is just the beginning!” said María Zajárova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on her Telegram channel, according to the EFE agency.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister of Estonia Kaja Kallas attend a meeting with students at Zhytomyr State Polytechnic University on April 24, 2023. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV/AFP). (GENIA SAVILOV/)

In a first reaction, Kaja Kallas linked the arrest warrant to his support for Ukraine.

“Russia may believe that issuing a fictitious arrest warrant will silence Estonia. I refuse to be silenced: I will continue to openly support Ukraine and advocating the strengthening of European defenses,” he said. Kallas in a statement cited by EFE.

He maintained that the measure adopted by the Russia “It’s not surprising at all”, as it is a tactic to try to generate a fear that is “familiar”.

”Estonia and I remain firm in our policy: supporting Ukrainereinforce European defense and fight against Russian propaganda”, he emphasized. Kallas.

“This sounds very familiar to me: my grandmother and mother were once deported to Siberia and (then) it was the KGB that issued fabricated arrest warrants,” he said.

“I have always maintained that the Russian regime’s criminal toolbox has not changed. We refuse to be intimidated by Russia’s scare tactics“, he continued.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas poses before a meeting at the European Union headquarters in Brussels on June 28, 2023. (Photo by Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP). (KENZO TRIBOUILLAR/)

Kaja Kallas was born in 1977 in Estonia occupied by the Soviets. She He belongs to one of the founding families of Estonia. The country became independent in 1991.

During the Soviet deportations from Estonia His mother, Kristi, then six months old, was sent to Siberia with her mother and grandmother in a cattle car. and he lived there until he was ten years old.

Kaja is the daughter of Siim Kallas, who served as Estonia’s 14th Prime Ministerand later was European Commissioner.

Kallas’s grandfather was Eduard Alver, one of the founders of the Republic of Estonia on 24 February 1918, and the first head of the Estonian Police from 1918 to 24 May 1919.. Kallas’s ancestry is part Latvian and Baltic German, through his father’s side of the family, according to the Argentine newspaper La Nación.

He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1999 in right. He is a member of Estonian Bar Association Since that year.

She was a partner at the law firm Luiga Mody Hääl Borenius and Tark & ​​​​Co and worked as an executive coach at the Estonian Business School. It is also a member of the European Antitrust Alliance.

In 2002, Kallas if you marry Taavi Veskimägi, an Estonian politician and businessman who was Minister of Economy. They divorced in 2014 and have one child.

In 2018, he got married Arvo Hallikbanker and investor who has two children from a previous relationship.

Liberal politician, in 2011 he joined the centrist party Reform Party.

In the 2014 elections, Kallas She ran as a candidate for the European Parliament and received 21,498 votes. She was a European deputy until 2018, when she decided to return to national politics.

On April 14, 2018, he won the internal elections of the Reform Party and became the first female leader of a major political party in Estonia.

On March 3, 2019, the Reform Party won the general election with around 29% of the votewhile the ruling Estonian Center Party took 23%.

Although, The Center Party managed to form a right-wing coalition with the conservative Isamaa party and the far-right EKRE, leaving the Reform Party out of power.

Reform Party leader Kaja Kallas speaks at the Estonian Parliament in Tallinn, January 25, 2021. (Photo by RAIGO PAJULA/AFP). (RAIGO PAJULA/)

In January 2021, Following the resignation of Jüri Ratas as Prime Minister, Kallas formed a coalition government with the Center Party, becoming Prime Minister of Estonia.

Now, Since 2023, he has led a coalition Executive with the liberal Esti 200 and the social democratswhose objectives include increasing security and seeking defense spending of 3% of GDP over the next four years, notes EFE.

According to the EFE agency, In the last two years she has earned the nickname “Iron Lady”. for demanding a ruthless response to Russian aggression in Ukraineregardless of Kremlin retaliation.

In an interview with the BBC after the start of the war, Kallas said that One should not “make the mistake” of letting the Russian Government go unpunished for the invasion, as this would send the message that “attacking has its rewards”.

“The West should aim for Ukraine to win this war and for Putin to lose it.”. Why? Because if there is some kind of peace agreement and there is some kind of Cold War, everyone stays where they are,” she said. “In this way, attacking has its benefits, because not only do you forcibly take part of your neighbors’ land, but you also get appeasement in the end. “That shouldn’t be allowed.”he commented.

Kallas also invoked the Europe needs to strengthen its security in a short period of three to five years, so that countries can prepare for a possible military conflict.

The Prime Minister referred to controversial comments made last week by the former US President donald trumpwho said he would encourage Russia to invade non-compliant NATO members if it wins elections in November this year.

“I think what the US presidential candidate says is also something that could awaken for some of the allies who didn’t do much. So hopefully we will all do more and collectively we will be stronger.” Kallas declared at a press conference.

In November last year, the American portal Politico reported that Kallas I would like to be Secretary General of NATO when Jens Stoltenberg leaves office.

Source: Elcomercio